This, of course, was nothing compared to the searing white hot rage I felt at the MTV vj with the name “Aaman” (or something carefully diverse) as he felt the need TO TELL US THAT THE WHO WERE ONSTAGE IN THE MIDDLE OF ”WON’T GET FOOLED AGAIN” ABOUT THREE SECONDS BEFORE THE MOTHERFUCKING POWER SCREAM, and we hit the volume on the computer so we could WATCH THE GODDAMN CONCERT, and Roger actually NAILED in front of the whole world, and the second he did I started sobbing uncontrollably, partly because whether I like it or not they are still My Band, it is like that old boyfriend that you just can’t shake yourself from emotionally, and Pete looked so good in that denim jacket and not a f’in suit for a change (although the beard makes Joe Grushecky’s eerie resemblance of PT even stranger).

Him: “And why didn’t we go to London for this?”
Me: “I’m sure we had a perfectly good reason at the time.”

But, I am getting ahead of myself.

I don’t have anything to say about the complete and utter ineptitude of Viacom and its various networks and their complete lack of ability to present a worldwide historical musical event with any professionalism or competence whatsoever that someone somewhere hasn’t already said. But, that said, I don’t know how anyone at that network isn’t going to be completely embarassed going to work on Tuesday morning. It was childish, moronic, disrespectful, inappropriate, and just plain LAME.

Around the time of Woodstock II (I think), I remember someone from MTV being interviewed about their proposed coverage and how they had learned a few lessons from the debacle that was their coverage of Live Aid — and there at least they had an excuse, the channel and the entire concept being in its infancy, but even then you didn’t need a rocket scientist to know that WHEN LED ZEPPELIN ARE REUNITING FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER YOU DO NOT SHOW MARTHA QUINN AND MARK GOODMAN HEADBANGING WHEN JIMMY PAGE IS TAKING A GUITAR SOLO!

(Yes, I’m still bitter about that one, and I am not any kind of Zeppelin fan whatsoever.)

Maybe it was deliberate, that they didn’t show one song in its entirety; maybe this was all by careful planning and design, maybe Geldof is still bitter about the people who taped Live Aid and sold the dvd’s on eBay (which could have been prevented a long time ago, but noooo). Yes, we had the computer and broadband to bring us anything that we missed and from a technical perspective, it worked flawlessly considering the load those servers must have been under.

It just seems a shame, in an age when music is respectable and valued commercially and critically, that an event of this stature couldn’t rate the coverage it deserved, especially considering the cause it was organized on behalf of.

Me: “The reason we didn’t go to London was?”
Boyfriend: “I’m not really sure right now.”

5 Responses to “live 8”

Yes, and wasn’t it horrendous how–say Linkin Park got like 20 minutes of air time and R.E.M. or U2 only five or less? It was fucking pathetic–about as pathetic as say, Green Day doing “We Are the Champions” in Berlin. That just sucked ass.

canadian coverage on network CTV was pretty excellent. there was no dialogue over performance, but of course the focus was canadian.
i’m surprised you didnt mention neil’s return to the stage…did you catch it?

Right on Caryn. What a difference the years make. In the days preceding Live Aid, I knew it was THE concert to watch and tape (I taped the entire thing and still have the tapes). I remember it was a beautiful day in NJ and my wife decided to spend the day at the beach with some friends and was a bit miffed that I decided to spend the day with the VCR and TV. The point is, I knew ahead of time that the ENTIRE even would be broadcast and I knew I just HAD to be there to witness it and tape it, warts and all.

With Live8, I knew going in that it was going to be a broadcast debacle. There was no way the ‘networks’ would be able to cover ALL of the events and present the performers with any reasonable musical accuracy. I tried to watch part of it live but just had to run away from the TV as fast as possible because I just could not stand the fact that all of this GREAT music was being played, and we were seeing highlights at best. And, even though it was available, I had no interest in sitting in front of one of my computers all day. So…….no Live8 for me.

They could have/should have been a better way. It’s a shame it wasn’t thought of.

Just my .02 of course.

Oh, and btw….come home sometime to the place where many of us met you. The water is fine. :-)